I was down at a popular cell phone provider's store today and I had an idea.  What if I go around and load up my blog in the favorites on the web browsers of all these smartphones on display while under the guise of a curious customer.  I did just that and now that particular store has about 10 cell phones with this very page in their favorites.  I didn't really know how to set the home page and I didn't want to take the time to figure it out for each phone so I didn't get that far.  I also have no idea how often those display phones are serviced/reloaded/looked at by staff so all that work may be gone tomorrow.  I also realize that your average Joe isn't going to be looking in the Favorites of a display phone.

I propose that more people do this.  Lets see if we can get this viral.  If nothing else, just pull up your website on the phone and leave it sitting, which I did with several of the phones I hit.  Don't do anything harmful though.  This is purely in the spirit of fun and mischief.

Hackosis has put into words the true definition of a hacker.  Many have tried before, but most failed.  The ones that came close told of a similar concept but didn't elaborate enough for most people to understand.  The following questions are put forth, so ask yourself:

1. Do you experience a never ending hunger for information?
2. Do you enjoy solving problems?
3. Do you shoot to kill?
4. Are you never bored?
5. Do you embrace free spirit?
6. Are you compassionate about what you do?
7. Do you do what you enjoy and enjoy what you do?

So?  How do you stack up?  Hacking isn't about breaking into computers and networks.  That's just how the media has sullied the word.  A hacker is someone who is intrigued by how things work and enjoys learning how they work, which is sometimes a difficult task.  Hackers fall into a lifestyle a friend of mine coined a few years ago, "intellectual hedonism".  We enjoy picking apart what most people would consider the most innane systems just to learn how they operate.  Because of this, hackers enjoy a life of accomplishment, whether its known to the world or not.

By the way, this Hackosis blog is amazing.  I've seen alot of hacker blogs around but this is one of the best I've ever seen.  No fluff on this one, it just gets right down to business.

BBSes were once the primary playground of the hacker. They are one of the oldest methods of electronic worldwide communication, where you can chat, send messages, and share files with others. Long ago in a network far, far away, people dialed into these bulletin board systems with their 9600 baud modems and established what was to become the legendary hacker communities of the 80s. This is where The Jargon File was born, this is where the Anarchist's Cookbook was first published, and this is where all the old schoolers got to know one another. Sadly, they are almost all gone.

Gladly, there are enough nostalgic geeks in the world to keep the tradition going, only the new generation of these BBSes are TCP/IP based, so you don't have to dial in with your phone line. Given, many of the people on these boards only visit once, check it out either for nostalgia or curiosity but its worth a look, especially if you never experienced this culture when it was in its prime.

Check out the Synchronet BBS List for some online BBSes that you can connect to. All you need is a telnet client and a few minutes of patience.

Lockpicking is one of the oldest hacker arts and one of the funnest/easiest things to do. There are great guides on the internet about how to actually pick locks, I'll link to some good ones at the end of the post. Of course, responsible lock picking is encouraged or you could end up in the slammer having your cellmate pick YOUR locks and you don't want that. Check local laws and make sure that its legal for you to possess lock picks without a license, as some states have outlawed even the possession of picks.

There are a couple ways to get some picks. You can order some off the internet, I got a pretty sweet set from Lockpicks.com for a very fair price so I recommend them. I haven't done business with any other sites, so I don't know how good they are.

How To Make Lock Picks - The funniest home videos are here

If you really wanna do the true hacker thing, you can make your own picks. I didn't realize how easy it was to do this before I ordered my picks, otherwise I would have used the method in the video. I'll probably still do that and make some more picks.

Lockpicking is fun and can be very easy (most locks) or very hard (high security locks). Its pretty interesting to know just how useless a lock is if someone with the right tools and knowledge is around... fairly scary too. Of course, don't get all paranoid. There are much easier ways of getting in your house than picking your doors.

• MIT Guide to Lockpicking (pdf)
• Greg Miller's Guide to Lockpicking
• Lockpicking Guide

There are also numerous videos on YouTube and Google Video about lockpicking that can be very helpful for a newbie (they were for me).

As a long time lover of the hacker arts, something that has long gone neglected is the fine arts of Ascii Art. I just found this page that has some excellent Ascii Art works. Check it out Here

It should be noted that some of these images are NSFW, that is if your workplace prohibits images of nude women rendered in ASCII text.

Johnny Long, of johnny.ihackstuff.com fame, has started a new charity foundation with his wife that enlists the aid of hackers to help with IT problems in the developing world, a place that honestly can't afford real IT guys. This is a really great thing for Johnny and the hacker community to take part in and it really does make a difference in the lives of people in various African countries.

In case you're a selfish asshole and don't have the desire to help people for the sake of help, there's something in it for you as well, especially if you need resume fodder. For each project you help complete, you are able to reference the project on your resume and you'll get a professional reference from Johnny Long on LinkedIn. For more details, watch his video on Google Video about No-Tech hacking, which really opened my eyes to some great techniques for seeing things important to security without the use of technology.

IHACKCHARITY.ORG

Defcon 15 - NoTech Hacking